Dirtscrolls

Bell Helmets is awarding a $100,000 grant to the trail network that earns the most votes in its annual Bell Built Grant program. Exchequer Mountain Bike Park in Mariposa, California, was chosen in the West bracket and Spirit Mountain Bike Park won the Central division. Now the East voting is live through May 24 and ...

Stan’s NoTubes was slow to the draw when it came to producing a carbon-rimmed wheelset, and in some aspects it’s not surprising. The company’s range of tubeless aluminum rim and hub combos has been among the best available. Personally, I’ve been using various builds of the brand’s offerings on my own bikes for years and ...

By Dan Atherton with Gill Harris, photos by David Evans Last weekend Dan Atherton of GT Factory Racing, oldest sibling in the Atherton family and famous for his world-class bike handling skills across loads of different disciplines rode the grass-roots Dyfi Enduro, held in the Dyfi Forest, starting at the Machynlleth town center in Powys, ...

Mountain biking has become a family sport, and so far this has been a breakout year for high-quality kids bikes that are just as capable as many full-size bikes. Everyone knows kids learn quickly and if they want to progress their skills they need quality gear. The new Transition Ripcord has 100mm of travel through ...

At the NoTubes Trans-Sylvania Epic stage race on May 24 to May 30, 2015, near State College, Pennsylvania, mountain bikers will not only have the chance to go for overall cross country glory, but they will also have the option to focus on the enduro competition. Featuring an average of three to four timed, downhill ...

Editor’s note: This story by Karl Rosengarth first appeared in Dirt Rag Issue #76, published in December 1999. It’s all about fun. I ride my mountain bike in search of maximum smiles per hour, and I’m not shy about spreading this philosophy. Occasionally, my riding crew loses their perspective, and I feel like I’m riding ...

Carbon fiber is capable of some amazing things, and the shapes that it can create have allowed bike designers to really get creative with suspension design. One of the most unusual ideas we’ve seen in years is the new Linkin Trail from the Swiss brand Bold Cycles. Essentially a basic four-bar design, it is unusual in ...

It took Shimano a surprisingly long time to bet on black. The venerable XT group has finally gotten a cosmetic makeover that is on point with it’s long-standing reputation of performance. For over 30 years XT has proven to be the measuring stick for quality. This latest iteration of the working-man’s-XTR  has the obvious upgrade in ...

Designed primarily as a lightweight cross-country and trail-bike stopper, FSA’s K-Force brakes have plenty of key features. The levers are carbon fiber, and the ambidextrous, split-perch body is made from magnesium and uses reliable Torx stainless-steel hardware with a titanium upgrade option. Its minimalist caliper houses two 22 mm pistons. Since appearing in Dirt Rag ...

It strikes me as a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg scenario as cyclists are taking their bikes to places they’ve never been, and new bike designs are allowing them to push them even further. That trend extends to events as well, and the Maneha 250 is an epic two-day bikepacking ride with a unique twist: a fully ...

Photo by Justa Jeskova I am by no means an expert gravity rider but the Whistler Bike Park is easily one of the most amazing places I’ve ever had a chance to ride. There are dozens of trails for all skill levels and the quality of their build-out and design is second to none. It’s ...

Easton’s Haven and Havoc wheels have been solid performers for years but with customers asking for ever-wider options the brand went back to the drawing board to create an all-new platform for aggressive trail and all-mountain riding. The new Heist wheels will be available in both 27.5 and 29-inch, and in three widths: 24 mm, ...

On the cover Gettin’ after it in Sedona, Arizona, by Emily Walley. The Dirt and Readings This month we travel to the Sedona Mountain Bike Festival and road trip to 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo. Also, featured columnist Stevil Kinevil laments being off the bike for a bit due to a nasty crash. Plus, ...

By Malcolm Mclaws It might be no accident that the first day of this year’s weeklong CruzFest in Santa Cruz, California, was on 4/20. Like most edgy underground festivals you need a theme. This first time event in the NorCal area was the initial stop of the six event Fest Series. Now in its second ...

The Bell Built Grants are an annual endeavor from Bell Helmets that awards $100,000 to a local trailbuilding project, and you get to pick who wins it. In the central region, where voting is live now, there are three projects vying for your vote: Red Rock Park – Gallup, New Mexico Red Rock Park is best ...

Editor’s note: “Zap” Espinoza is a Mountain Bike Hall of Famer who got his start with Hi-Torque Publications’ Mountain Bike Action magazine in 1987. He moved on to Mountain Bike magazine in 1993, where he filled the editor’s chair until taking the reigns as Trek’s mountain bike brand manager in 2004. In 2006 Zap returned ...

Like many gear-oriented guys I know, when I first got into cycling I went all in. I bought the spandex shorts, the fingerless gloves, and of course, those wacky clip-in pedals. But now that I’m a little older and wiser, or at least a lot more pragmatic, I’ve taken a shine to flat pedals for ...

    Despite more than 20 years of business in the Europe, Ghost isn’t a brand familiar to many folks in the United States. National outdoor retailer REI will certainly change that public awareness as they are now the exclusive distributor of Ghost bicycles in the United States. Ghost bikes are available both in REI stores ...

Ryde Rims Ryde Rims showed up to our booth one morning with a new rim. Ryde was until recently known as Rigida, and is now going after a higher end part of the market. This is the Trace rim ($135), which will come in 22, 25 and 29 mm internal widths in both standard and asymmetric. ...

Based on the success of its Fatboy, Specialized debuted the new Fuse (men’s) and Ruze (women’s) 27plus at the Sea Otter Classic, a platform the company has dubbed “6Fattie.” Built from Specialized’s M4 level aluminum, the 67 degree head angle is slacker and more trail bike worthy than the Fatboy and the bottom bracket is also ...

Photos by Brian Leddy. The twelfth annual Whiskey Off Road kicked off the Epic Rides Off-Roads Series over the weekend, 2,000 riders enjoyed perfect trail conditions and an estimated 10,000 spectators enjoyed the party along Whiskey Row in Prescott, Arizona. Highlights Friday’s 15 Proof Fun Ride guided riders of all skill level on a scenic course of ...

Photos by Nick Kova After we learned of the return of Fat Chance Cycles last fall, things got rolling with a crowdfunding campaign to raise seed money to get the revived business off the ground and build the first batch of new bikes. Now that the campaign has been successfully funded, Fat Chance is taking orders ...

Subaru Subaru is one of the key sponsors of Sea Otter and it had a collection of vintage cars and bikes in its booth. It’s amazing how dated the mountain bikes look but the car from the same era seems commonplace.     Ergon The new GA1 grip from Ergon has been hugely popular, both ...

Raleigh Raleigh had a two new prototypes at the show, both still in unfinished matte carbon. The Roker is a carbon fiber version of Raleigh’s well received Tamland and Willard gravel bikes. Expect the same geometry as the previous bikes, room for 40 mm tires, thru axles and three bottle mounts for those long dirt ...

Editor’s note: This story first appeared in Dirt Rag Issue #120, published in April 2006. Words by James Flynn. Photography by Ian Merritt. Let me tell you about the time I made my tallbike. Shortly after I moved to Chicago, my friend Mike showed up to my place to sit on the stoop. He rolled ...

Polygon A new entry to the U.S. market, Polygon expands its line up with a few more bikes. The Syncline 9 is a 27.5 hardtail race bike. The full carbon frame, XTR wheels and Di2 drivetrain and Fox Factory 32 fork make this a top-level racer right out of the box. $4,200 direct to consumer price. ...

Sultan 27plus There’s no doubt this is the year of the 27plus bonanza, and Turner is one of the first brands out of the gate with a revised Sultan built around the new wheel size. With an overall diameter roughly equal to that of a 29er, modifying the design was simply a matter of making ...

A thru-hike or mountain bike trip along the legendary Arizona Trail is high on the bucket list of many would-be adventurers. But while exploring the diverse terrain along its route is a lot of fun, making sure you have transportation to and from the trailhead plus food and camping supplies isn’t always an expedition highlight. Hermosa Tours ...

As the fat bike market matures it is inevitably diversifying into specific product categories. Just as mountain bikes now have categories for downhill, cross country or trail riding, fat bike riders are realizing one size does not fit all. The Farley model has been hugely popular for Trek, but it was being pulled in two ...

With all the tire size and hub width standards getting pushed around lately, it might have been easy to overlook something as simple as a dent in a handlebar. But with the industry ready and willing to throw convention out the window these days, why not rethink bike sizing as well? The PDent is Kirk ...

Here at Dirt Rag we’re huge fans of classic steel hardtails, and today we got an introduction to a new brand with a unique business model that is giving back to the associations that support cycling. Advocate Cycles is a new venture from industry veteran Tim Krueger and its first product is the Hayduke, a ...

Editor’s note: Each year Dirt Rag solicits readers’ fiction, essays and poetry in our annual Literature Contest. In Issue #182 of Dirt Rag you’ll find the winner of our 2014 Literature Contest, but we received many submissions worth sharing, so we will be posting some of the finalists here over the next few weeks. We hope ...

We first got a look at the Sherpa concept last spring at the Sea Otter Classic, and now one year later Rocky Mountain is ready to introduce the bike to the world. Built around the 27plus tires—in this case WTB’s 2.8 Trailblazers—the Sherpa is loosely based on the Element 29er and contains much of the ...

Introduced a few years ago, the first Trek Stache was a conservative, if not somewhat boring entry into the 29er trail bike market. Well no longer. We were shocked when this 29plus trail slayer showed up on our doorstep a few weeks before it was officially announced today at Sea Otter. Looking more like a ...

Who says you can’t still get high quality 9-speed components? The Sunrace Driven RDMZ7 rear derailleur is Shimano 9-speed compatible, has an aluminum body, carbon fiber pulley cage and aluminum pulleys with sealed cartridge bearings. It weighs in a just 241 grams and is a $125 value. Enter to win yours by filling in your ...

If the name Chris Curries sounds familiar, it’s for good reason. The bike industry veteran owned Speedgoat Cycles, a Pennsylvania bike shop that grew into a major player. When he sold the company he moved to Portland to shepherd his Asylum brand. Now he is the creative director at Stan’s NoTubes. While he’s been a ...

Shimano’s flagship XTR mountain bike line made the jump to 11 speeds last year, and while we have certainly been impressed with its performance, it will always remain a bit of a halo product, out of reach of most mountain bikers. The new Deore XT group features many of the technologies first debuted in XTR ...

What would you say if someone took your favorite bike, swapped out your go-to compact gearing or reliable triple crankset, and installed a single chainring with a ginormous 11-speed cassette? Then, to pour salt into the wound, told you to climb nearly 3,000 feet of elevation on California’s central coast? On nearly 15 miles of ...

Lezyne has made a bold move. The company is well known for creating beautiful, machined aluminum pumps and tire levers. It’s since grown exponentially to include bottle cages, tools and lights. Now, in its ninth year of existence the brand is unabashedly going head to head with GPS leader Garmin. Lezyne has three upcoming models, ...

  The Single Track of Wellington In the slate dark morning of Stage 6, we woke to the sound of raindrops patting the tents and campers. “Hmm,” I thought. “Today’s shorter, cross-country distance stage could be more decisive than we’d expected.” Sure enough, soon after the starting gun, the field was peppered with crashes. The ...

I have to admit, when fat bikes first came around, I didn’t like them either. They looked cumbersome and slow. Not my idea of a good time. But once I started riding a few, I started to see the light. Are they a niche product that could only be someone’s “other” bike? Or are they a ...

Editor’s note: Each year Dirt Rag solicits readers’ fiction, essays and poetry in our annual Literature Contest. In Issue #182 of Dirt Rag you’ll find the winner of our 2014 Literature Contest, but we received many submissions worth sharing, so we will be posting some of the finalists here over the next few weeks. We hope ...

Aside from a helmet and some air in the tires, there’s one thing I can never ride without: proper eyewear. The right glasses not only keep the sun from getting in your eyes, they can keep even more nasty things from snuggling up to your corneas, like low-hanging branches or pebbles tossed up from other riders. That’s ...

Editor’s note: This story first appeared in Dirt Rag Issue #119, published in February 2006. Words by Nick Verstain. Art by Philip Newsom. Socially awkward. That’s what Mom used to say about me. She was only partly right. I was awkward socially, physically, romantically and spiritually. There were only 334 kids at Massasauga High, but ...

Spring is here and it’s heating up on your local trails—and you know what they say: sun’s out, gun’s out. That’s why you need to enter our weekly drawing to win a Club Ride Billy Bob sleeveless jersey. It might look old-school but it’s made from lightweight, wicking, fast-drying fabric with UPF30 sun protection… well, ...

Renthal is well known in the off-road motorcycle world for, among many other things, its hi-quality chainrings as well a collection of top-notch bicycle parts including bars, stems and grips mainly directed towards the downhill, all-mountain and enduro crowd. After 18 months of development and testing Renthal has just this week officially introduced its new ...

SRAM has made some big news in recent weeks with the launch of its new GX drivetrain group and the Boost series of components, but there are some smaller changes in the lineup that are worth noting. First up is the 27.5 version of the RS-1 fork. The unique inverted design brings all the performance of ...

A downhill bike helmet must face strict safety standards, but for many riders the additional DOT safety rating is a strong selling point. The drawback? The additional size and weight of a DOT helmet is not only annoying, it can compound injuries due to the pendulum effect. Kali Protectives already makes some of the most advanced ...